Hsu hot in Taiwan

Hsu Jen-hao continued his fine form at the Chinese Taipei Masters as he booked a spot in the semi-finals after beating Tan Chun Seang 6-11,11-4, 13-15, 11-5, 11-9.

Hsu, who is the tournament’s number one seed, was made to work for his victory over Tan.

In the first game, the experienced Malaysian shuttler surprised Hsu with a high level of intensity and a willingness to keep points as short as possible. Tan took it 11-6.

Hsu regrouped quickly though and found some resemblance of rhythm in the second game as he began to move Tan around the court more easily. After storming into an early lead, Hsu won the game 11-4 to level matters.

With both players now in the groove, the third game produced some epic badminton. Long rallies, inch perfect winners and some spectacular defence were the features of a wonderful game that Tan ended up winning 15-13.

Down 2-1, there was no margin for error for Hsu and with the pressure on, he found a way of conjuring up his best.

One always got the feeling that the longer this one went on the better Hsu’s chances of winning were due to his superior fitness.

And so when the man from Tapei won the fourth game 11-5, it was hardly a surprise that he took the decider 11-9 to clinch what was a superb quarter-final encounter.

That match proved to be the best of the day as the others were not quite as evenly contested.